Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Creative writing

Whether you enjoy writing sci-fi, fantasy or fiction, join our Creative Writing forum to meet others who love to write.

Flip

1 2 ··· 13 14 15 ··· 38 39

Original poster

For anyone else who wants to start/progress/finish writing a book in 2011

962 replies

artifarti · 06/12/2010 20:21

As the title says really!

Me: After several years of dithering with short stories, I committed myself to Nanowrimo last month and managed to bash out a 50,000 first draft of an idea I've had for ages. There is some excrutiating crap in there but also the bare bones of a plot and some interesting characters. So I'd really like to spend 2011 trying to develop it into something better.

But I need some company so that we can mutually kick each other's arses when the temptation to watch Holby City is proving too great. Anyone else?

OP posts:

comewhinewithme · 23/03/2011 09:41

Oh have only got the first very rough chapter done so far.

BsshBossh · 23/03/2011 11:38

"The first very rough chapter" is more than a lot of people who want to write have so well done and welcome comewhinewithme . BTW, loads of established writers write by hand. I write better on a computer and always have as my handwriting is atrocious and I cannot decipher any of it .

FlamingoBingo · 23/03/2011 11:49

I do that, CWWM. I have just discovered that the way to write (for me) is with a notebook and a pencil (after advice from MN!) and to just write and let it flow; and then I intend to edit/re-write etc. when I type it up on the computer at some distant date in the future. I am just loving my lovely, pencil-filled pages - they have a lovely feel to them

And I'm looking forward to this afternoon - DH is here and we're all heading out to a lovely local place where the children can play outside, and I can sit in the sunshine and write, write, write!

ninah · 23/03/2011 12:38

I got an alpahsmart neo, following advice on here. Basically a portable laptop, battery powered and battery lasts around a year .. it's v light and portable, no leads - type in your stuff in rough and then download it to your computer for further polishing Ebay, £60. problem solved! I like the flexibility of writing by hand but this is almost as relaxed, and no typing up!

weblette · 23/03/2011 12:42

This thread has prompted me to finally write the synopsis for a children's book I've had in my head for ages :) Thanks!!

comewhinewithme · 23/03/2011 12:53

That sounds interesting ninah, I will look into it.
I am glad it is not just me who writes by hand :).
Am of your afternoon FB, I have to stay in with a grumpy toddler waiting for packages.
Thanks for the welcome Bssh.

A few more things that are bugging me. Every time I try and give the main character a name I stop writing, it dosen't seem like she wants a name but I can't keep calling her "The woman" Or "She".

I also thought I was writing a dark comedy but it is coming across to me as more horror.

It is so weird how it is turning out, I have one idea in my head yet when it is on paper it is very different.

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 13:13

Publisher has given me the contact details for the head of picture books in her house and told me to send them to the picture book lady directly. She replied yesterday to thank me for sending them, saying that they were lovely ideas and she'll be in touch properly in a couple of weeks. This sounds good (I think??)

comewhinewithme · 23/03/2011 13:18

That sounds very good Belle.

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 13:28

I hope so, fingers crossed. Thank you.

blouseenthusiast · 23/03/2011 13:47

I would love to join this thread - will now read it properly before coming back with foolish questions...

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 14:05

There's no such thing as a foolish question blouse. Welcome

BsshBossh · 23/03/2011 14:07

Belle I am so excited for you - it's all so positive!!!!

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 14:11

Thank you. It's going to be a long couple of weeks.

BsshBossh · 23/03/2011 15:22

Okay, public accountability time again: 901 words completed today plus around 2000 words of notes on a major sex scene I plan on writing tomorrow. By end of play Friday I hope to have completed Chapter 7. Am looking forward to tomorrow's writing session .

How has everyone else been - Ninah, did you manage to get an editing session in last night?

FlamingoBingo · 23/03/2011 16:43

How exciting, Belle!

Well done Bssh.

I've written about 700 words of my adults' novel this afternoon, and had a bash at a second picture book, so I have something 'up my sleeve' for an agent when I submit my first picture book. This one's about being a middle child, and I'm really please with the story, but it needs at better ending and some tightening up! Will try to have a play with it this evening.

Off to take DD1 to her dance lesson now - should get some more writing done while I wait for her. A bit of a nasty scene so not really looking forward to it!

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 17:48

Thank you. Not there yet though.

FlamingoBingo · 23/03/2011 19:05

Woohoo! 950 words of a fantastic (I think ) scene in one hour while DD1 had her dance lesson! I'm so pleased with it. It's a tough scene, though, and I got really into it. Kept having to remind myself I was in a public place.

I don't really care of this stuff gets published or not - I am so enjoying the process of writing it

belledechocchipcookie · 23/03/2011 19:27

Oh, well done Flamingo! I hope you're getting inspiration for this scene from mumsnet?

ninah · 23/03/2011 19:30

good news belle!
and well done fb and bb, great stuff.
Yes I did some work on the current draft, it was more a question of taking in amendments than making any new ones. I wrote a bit of dialogue in my lunch hour. And tonight I am going to print out the remaining 8 chapters of part one and edit four of them.
The whole thing needs a lot more work, and I will be doing this in the Easter hols, but I want to have a workable draft ready in time.
Part two is another story ...

FlamingoBingo · 23/03/2011 19:45

I'm half looking forward to, and half not looking forward to the editing/reworking part of the process, Ninah!

I think I've decided my novel needs to be in two parts. Part 1 is a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from present to past; and then Part 2 will be just the present onwards (the future?).

Belle - the scene is a bit harrowing, actually. A first glimpse of the nastier parts of an otherwise charming character. DH read it and said 'that's clever! I wasn't expecting it to turn out like that!'. His genuine eagerness to find out what happens next every time I write a bit more is really keeping me going, actually. He's not a mad book-lover, though, so I'm not quite sure how much that actually means in terms of whether or not my story is any good, but I like the story, and he does so it's a start.

Going to a friends' house this evening for a cup of tea, so will leave picture book number 2's editing for the time being - I think it's good to leave it to settle for a bit before playing with it anyway.

BsshBossh · 24/03/2011 11:16

It's only been a week since I've resumed my novel but I'm on a roll. Wrote 1009 words in 2 hours early this morning and have now completed Chapter 7 a day ahead of schedule. So I will spend tomorrow reviewing and editing it. ready to start next week with Chapter 8.

That brings the total word count for the novel to 37,578 (precisely!). I'm a third of the way through!

Flamingo - it's a really good sign that your DH is eager to find out what happens next!

Ninah - is your novel a two-parter then? Have you written a 2nd or 3rd draft for the second part yet? Do you have an aim when to finish the final edit and submit?

blouseenthusiast · 24/03/2011 15:41

Hello all, Well I've read the thread now. And am readying my foolish questions.
So me - I have a full-time job which is not writing but have done some freelance journalism and written two non-fiction books where much of the material just needed shaping / editing, so writing them was not like writing from scratch.
Otherwise I seem to produce these stumps of novels. Current (adult fiction) stump is abpout 12k words and I feel very stuck, Have another idea for a young adult novel but wonder whether flirting with this will just mean abandoning another stump.
Any of those of you who have completed and published novels successfully juggled two projects at same time?

ninah · 24/03/2011 18:53

Yeah it's a two parter. Part one was written in a hurry as part of nano, and has been edited twice, with plenty of work still to be done. Part two was written more slowly and has had a brief read through and tweak, no more. I have always been too hasty to finish in the past and reluctant to go back and make the subsequent changes that bring it up from random string of words to evocative, rich paragraphs.
What kind of car would a student have in the late 80s? a Golf?

FlamingoBingo · 24/03/2011 19:59

Male or female, Ninah? Citroen 2CV if they were a bit hippyish? A golf if they were very 'cool'...but not if they were female.

comewhinewithme · 25/03/2011 10:04

Hello, hope everyone is ok. I am struggling atm. Blazed away at the first chapter but now everything I write sounds a bit twee .
Hi sam, I tend to write in the evenings but scribble ideas down during the day or I tend to forget them.

Flip

1 2 ··· 13 14 15 ··· 38 39